Glick Twins - Serving the Valley Since 1945
Featured in the September 2016 Issue

During the first three decades of the 20th century
the Rio Grande Valley was promoted as a
magical place where crops could be grown all
year long. Valley based land development companies
placed advertisements in major newspapers
in the Midwest and arranged train transportation
for prospective land buyers from cities
such as Chicago, Kansas City, St. Louis and Des Moines.

It was on one of these excursion trains that
Bess Glick arrived in the Rio Grande Valley
in 1926. Bess liked what she saw in the Valley
and was especially fond of the mild winter climate.

Upon returning to her home in Paris, Illinois, the recently divorced
Bess loaded her children and a few of their belongings
into her Model T and made the first of
many trips to the Valley. Included in this group
of travelers were Bess' twelve year old twin
sons, Kenith and Kemper. Kenith's son Bob recalls
how his father spoke of the arduous 1300
plus mile journey traveling roads which were
little more than wagon trails. They would have
to begin the trip with at least ten spare tires on
hand. Truly one of the earliest Winter Texans,
Bess never spent a summer in the Valley. She
and her children would return every fall, first in
her Model T and later in a Model A Ford.

Kenith Glick attended and graduated from
Edinburg College which is now UTRGV. After
graduating he moved to Chicago where he
worked for General Motors during the World's
Fair of 1933. He soon moved back to Pharr,
Texas where he and his twin brother
Kemper began an orchard care business
with the encouragement of the
Bentsen family.

When the United States entered
World War II, Kenith and Kemper
enlisted in the Army Air Corps.
At the wars end, in 1945, the twins
came home to the Valley and opened
Glick Brothers Army Surplus Store
at Three Mile Line Rd. and Conway
in Mission, TX.
In 1950 Kenith and Kemper moved
the business location to the 400 block
of West Business Highway 83 in
Pharr, TX and changed the name to
Glick Twins. By the end of 1963 they
had expanded the store to encompass the area it
occupies today.

Kenith and Kemper Glick had a keen interest
in hunting and were savvy businessmen when
it came to providing the necessary supplies to
hunters in the Valley. During the late 1970s
Glick Twins transitioned from being an army
surplus store into a full service outdoor sports
store including camping, hunting and fishing
supplies.

It was in the late 1960s that Kenith's son, Bob,
began at the age of seven to help out around the
store by sweeping up and doing various other
chores. Bob paid attention to what was going
on around him and developed a keen sense of
business and a passion for hunting. During our
interview, Bob recalled that in his teenage years
he spent most of his extracurricular time honing
his hunting skills.

In 1990 Glick Twins phased out their line of
camping and fishing supplies and focused in on
becoming the premier shooting sports store in
the Valley.
Bob Glick took over operations of the store
in 1987 and purchased the business in 1998.
He has surrounded himself with a staff of employees
who know the ins and outs of shooting
sports. While the main focus of Glick Twins is
shooting sports, Bob said that there has recently
been a large volume of sales for defense.

From their early beginnings in the 1930s, the
Glick Twins, Kenith and Kemper, gathered a
vast amount of knowledge and expertise which
they developed into a time tested successful
business. Now the torch has been passed to the
next generation as Bob Glick continues in the
tradition of providing excellent products and
service to the residents of the Valley.

Unpaved, primitive roads in the 1920s and 30s made
travel by automobile an arduous undertaking.